No ACTA from the Swedish Presidency for me

,----[ Quote ]
| The General Secretariat has weighed my
| “interest in being informed of progress in
| this area against the general interest that
| progress be made in an area that is still
| the subject of negotiations”… “As there is
| no evidence suggesting an overriding public
| interest to warrant disclosure of the
| document in question, the General
| Secretariat has concluded that protection
| of the decision-making process outweighs
| the public interest in disclosure.”
`----

http://arebentisch.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/no-acta-from-the-swedish-...

WIPO Boss: ACTA Should be Open, Transparent

,----[ Quote ]
| If even the head of WIPO is saying ACTA
| needs to be drawn up as part of an open,
| transparent process, isn't it time for the
| relevant governments to listen?
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/11/wipo-boss-acta-should-be-op...

The Great ACTA Lie Revealed

,----[ Quote ]
| As this shows, it collects all the worst
| ideas around copyright infringement –
| third-party liability, limited safe harbour
| rules, “three strikes and you're out”,
| anti-circumvention legislation etc. – and
| wants to make them mandatory in most of the
| developed world.
|
| But step back a minute, and notice what
| I've just written: the worst ideas around
| *copyright infringement*. And yet time and
| again ACTA governments around the world
| have insisted that this is not a copyright
| treaty, but a treaty to fight
| counterfeiting by large-scale, organised
| crime – it's even in ACTA's name.
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2626...

Internet talks to create copyright police

,----[ Quote ]
| Under the worldwide rules of the Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA),
| Internet service providers such as Bell and
| Rogers in Canada would be required to
| become copyright police and filter out
| pirated material from their networks, hand
| over the identities of customers believed
| to be infringing copyrights and restrict
| the use of identity-blocking software.
`----

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Internet+talks+create+copyright...

ACTA update: A question of sovereignty, says law professor

,----[ Quote ]
| A leaked chapter of the international Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) could
| "eliminate sovereign choice on domestic
| copyright policy", Canadian internet law
| specialist Michael Geist says.
|
| Computerworld reported the leak and
| apparent contradictions between the new
| text and statements last year from New
| Zealand MED negotiator George Wardle. Last
| year, Wardle told Computerworld the treaty
| was aimed at piracy on a commercial scale.
`----

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/EEC8CEAFC9C54B90CC2576630080...

Does The White House Have Any Legal Right To Demand No Modifications To Its Photos?

,----[ Quote ]
| The problem is the White House has no right
| to say that you can't manipulate the photo,
| since the photo is public domain. It's
| really unfortunate that, once again, we're
| seeing how little people seem to understand
| (or value) the public domain.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091106/0222346823.shtml

Recent:

More on secret copyright treaty: your kids could go to jail for noncommercial music sharing

,----[ Quote ]
| Michael Geist sez, "According to the
| official agenda, in a few hours the Anti
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks will
| continue on the Internet provisions and
| then move into the criminal provisions
| chapter. It is worth highlighting the
| ongoing criminal provisions as well. As
| previously leaked, the U.S. and Japan
| supplied the initial text for this chapter.
| Their proposal included extending criminal
| enforcement to both (1) cases of a
| commercial nature; and (2) cases involving
| significant willful copyright and trademark
| infringement even where there is no direct
| or indirect motivation of financial gain.
| In other words, non-commercial infringement
| could lead to criminal penalties. Plus,
| jail time for unauthorized camcording of
| films and even for fake DVD and CD
| packaging."
`----

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/04/more-on-secret-copyr.html

ACTA Negotiations, Day Two: What's On Tap

,----[ Quote ]
| As ACTA negotiators head into day two of
| the Seoul, Korea meetings, the global
| response to the Internet provisions in the
| chapter (the issue from day one) has been
| remarkable.  Articles and postings from
| around the world (Germany, Italy, Sweden,
| UK, New Zealand, the Netherlands, U.S.,
| Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands),
| coverage from some of the most popular
| websites (Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb,
| TorrentFreak, BoingBoing, Slashdot), as
| well as expert commentary (EFF, Electronic
| Frontier Australia) has been swift and
| universally concerned with ACTA.
`----

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4511/125/

Record labels keep blaming P2P, but it's a hard sell

,----[ Quote ]
| The IFPI is blasting a recent study showing
| that P2P users buy more music, but an EU
| Commissioner and a UK Parliamentary body
| both blame music labels for "much of the
| problem" with current P2P usage levels. The
| major labels couldn't disagree more.
`----

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/record-labels-keep-bl...

Lord Mandelson Wants Students To Get More Tech Education; Can We Start By Educating Him?

,----[ Quote ]
| Now, I'm all for more tech skills training
| in universities, but wouldn't it be nice if
| Mandelson started by getting some tech
| skills training himself -- including a
| basic understanding of why an IP address is
| not an accurate indicator of who is doing
| something online? Or, perhaps, an
| understanding of how BitTorrent actually
| works and a brief primer on encryption
| technologies....
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091105/0159016802.shtml

Why Do Canada And Europe Copyright Money?

,----[ Quote ]
| Finding the whole thing bizarre, but
| remembering that I have some Canadian
| currency from my last trip there, I checked
| -- and, indeed, in tiny print in the lower
| right-hand corner, there is a copyright
| notice. And then... bonus. Tucked in with
| my Canadian cash was a 5 euro bill as
| well... and it also appears to have a
| copyright notice on it right at the top in
| the center (though, it's tiny). I did a
| quick search, and indeed, it appears that
| the design of the euro is also covered by
| copyright with specific limitations on
| copying.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091102/0418556762.shtml

Court finds that answers to textbook questions are an infringing derivative work

,----[ Quote ]
| The Defendant allegedly sold answer to the
| Plaintiff’s engineering and accounting
| textbooks questions, via the internet.  The
| answer sets were identical to the
| Plaintiff’s instructor’s solutions manuals.
| Uneventful simple case of copyright
| infringement?  Such was not the case.
`----

http://www.exclusiverights.net/2009/10/court-finds-that-answers-to-te...

Ferrari Doesn't Want Web Racing Simulation To Use Ferraris

,----[ Quote ]
| Lincoln Braun writes "I play an online web
| game. BATracer which is designed to
| simulate a number of racing series
| including Formula 1, LeMans, A1 Grand Prix,
| Ferrari Challenge, and more. This week,
| however, the owner of the site received a
| legal notice from Ferrari, ordering a cease
| & desist from using Ferrari cars. BATracer
| has somewhere between 2000 and 3000 active
| users, most of whom arrived at the site
| because of Formula 1. The letter by Ferrari
| has really annoyed many of the most
| passionate fans and they have lost a lot of
| goodwill."
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091102/2115416771.shtml

Comcast Exec: We Need To Change Customer Behavior, Not Our Business Model

,----[ Quote ]
| The quotes really are quite stunning. Burke
| basically seems to be saying the focus
| needs to be on figuring out ways to get
| consumers to change, rather than changing
| to match what customers want. A business
| model based on going against what consumers
| want doesn't seem likely to last that long.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091030/1624136747.shtml

Does the RIAA let defaulters off the hook?

,----[ Quote ]
| Judging by the number of times it has
| happened, plenty of accused file-swappers
| believe they're better off not showing up
| to court than even talking to the RIAA—
| especially if the recording industry
| doesn't bother to collect on the default
| judgments it eventually wins. Unfortunately
| for the file-swappers, it's not true.
`----

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/does-the-riaa-let-def...

Google countersues in Android Specht-spat

,----[ Quote ]
| Google has come out fighting against Erich Specht who
| sued the search giant over the Android name, launching
| a countersuit demanding damages and "disgorgement of
| ill-gotten gains".
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/06/google_android/

Recent:

More ACTA Details Leak: It's An Entertainment Industry Wishlist

,----[ Quote ]
| The latest round of "negotiations" over the
| ACTA treaty continue in secret due to as yet
| unexplained national security reasons
| (despite the fact that the entertainment
| industry lobbyists have had full access to
| the document) are kicking off in Korea. Once
| again is becoming clear that the claims by
| US trade reps that ACTA did not represent
| any kind of major change in copyright law,
| and thus didn't require public scrutiny, are
| nothing more than a myth. Despite ridiculous
| efforts to keep the document secret (some
| countries were given only physical,
| watermarked, copies of the latest drafts),
| some of the details are leaking out and it's
| not pretty at all.
|
| The plan is modeled on the ridiculously
| misnamed "free trade agreement" between the
| US and South Korea from a few years back.
| It's misnamed because it wasn't about free
| trade at all, but massive protectionism for
| the American entertainment industry.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091103/1308526784.shtml

The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together

,----[ Quote ]
| The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
| negotations continue in a few hours as
| Seoul, Korea plays host to the latest round
| of talks.  The governments have posted the
| meeting agenda, which unsurprisingly focuses
| on the issue of Internet enforcement [UPDATE
| 11/4: Post on discussions for day two of
| ACTA talks, including the criminal
| enforcement provisions].  The United States
| has drafted the chapter under enormous
| secrecy, with selected groups granted access
| under strict non-disclosure agreements and
| other countries (including Canada) given
| physical, watermarked copies designed to
| guard against leaks.
`----

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4510/125/

Leaked ACTA Internet Provisions: Three Strikes and a Global DMCA

,----[ Quote ]
| Negotiations on the highly controversial
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement start in
| a few hours in Seoul, South Korea. This
| week’s closed negotiations will focus on
| “enforcement in the digital environment.”
| Negotiators will be discussing the Internet
| provisions drafted by the US government. No
| text has been officially released but as
| Professor Michael Geist and IDG are
| reporting, leaks have surfaced. The leaks
| confirm everything that we feared about the
| secret ACTA negotiations. The Internet
| provisions have nothing to do with
| addressing counterfeit products, but are all
| about imposing a set of copyright industry
| demands on the global Internet, including
| obligations on ISPs to adopt Three Strikes
| Internet disconnection policies, and a
| global expansion of DMCA-style TPM laws.
`----

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/leaked-acta-internet-provisions-...

Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

,----[ Quote ]
| The internet chapter of the Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret
| copyright treaty whose text Obama's
| administration refused to disclose due to
| "national security" concerns, has leaked.
| It's bad. It says:
|
|     * * That ISPs have to proactively police
|     copyright on user-contributed material.
|     This means that it will be impossible to
|     run a service like Flickr or YouTube or
|     Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to
|     ensure that the mountain of material
|     uploaded every second isn't infringing
|     will exceed any hope of profitability.
`----

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html

Australian Radio Program On 'Piracy' What 60 Minutes Should Have Done

,----[ Quote ]
| The report goes in-depth in other areas as
| well, including a discussion on fair
| use/fair dealing, the history of copyright
| (and how it's often been abused in the name
| of artists, when it really had nothing to do
| with them) and the importance of
| mashup/remix culture. It's the sort of
| report that a program like 60 Minutes could
| have -- and should have -- done, but did
| not. Kudos to ABC radio down in Australia.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091103/0303386776.shtml

MPAA Tells The FCC: If We Don't Stop Piracy, The Internet Will Die

,----[ Quote ]
| Never let it be said that the folks in
| Hollywood aren't good at coming up with a
| totally fictional horror story. I just have
| a problem when they use it not to entertain,
| but to create a moral panic to push the
| government to pass laws in their favor.
|
| [...]
|
| And, of course, it pushes for kicking file
| sharers off the internet (it hides this by
| calling it "graduated response," of course,
| rather than the more common term "three
| strikes"). The filing also goes on about how
| the MPAA is just so sure that ISPs can stamp
| out piracy, and because of that, it thinks
| the government should force them to get on
| it.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091103/0434486780.shtml

White House shares the ACTA Internet text with 42 Washington insiders,
under non disclosure agreements

,----[ Quote ]
| Table 1: USTR says these people signed a
| Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to see the
| U.S. proposed Internet text for ACTA
| Name  Firm    Date
| Emery Simon   Business Software
| Alliance (BSA)        08/11/09`
| Jesse Feder   Business Software
| Alliance (BSA)        08/11/09
| Bill Patry    Google  08/11/09
| Daphne Keller         Google  08/11/09
| Johanna Shelton       Google  08/11/09
| Lisa Pearlman         Wilmer Hale     | 08/11/09
| Robert Novick         Wilmer Hale     | 08/11/09
| Bob Kruger    Consultant to eBay
|
| [...]
`----

http://keionline.org/node/660

ACTA Negotiations Back On... White House Shows Small Group Proposed Text Under NDA

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091013/1854546514.shtml

Obama Stands Behind ‘State Secrets’ in Spy Case

,----[ Quote ]
| The Obama administration said Wednesday that it
| would maintain President George W. Bush’s state
| secrets position when it came to lawsuits leftover
| from that administration.
`----

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/obama-stands-behind-state-se...

Unconstitutional aspects of ACTA

,----[ Quote ]
| The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement exceeds the European
| Union competence. National Constitutional Courts may invalidate aspects of
| ACTA.
`----

http://action.ffii.org/acta/unconstitutional-aspects

White House: ACTA still “secret in the interest of national defense or foreign
policy”

,----[ Quote ]
| On Thursday, July 30, 2009, the White House office of the United States Trade
| Representative denied release of 4 new proposals for text that were
| circulated in July to “all countries” in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
| Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The request was limited to documents that were
| prepared in the past 90 days for purpose of discussion at the July 2009 ACTA
| negotiating meeting held in Morocco.
`----

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/07/31/whitehouse-denies-foia-acta/

The Basis for Micropatronage

,----[ Quote ]
| The idea that a publication retains value that creates an obligation upon the
| recipient to repay is an epiphenomenon of copyright. This is the peculiar
| idea that the maker or recipient of a copy of a published work extracts value
| from it which must be repaid to its copyright holder (or million dollar fines
| are liable).
`----

http://www.digitalproductions.co.uk/index.php?id=203

EFF sues Obama administration for promised access to secret copyright treaty
documents

,----[ Quote ]
| Rebecca from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "The U.S. government is
| still blocking the release of information about a secret intellectual
| property trade agreement with broad implications for privacy and innovation
| around the world, despite the Obama administration's promises to run a more
| open government. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) could
| establish far-reaching customs regulations over Internet traffic in the guise
| of anti-counterfeiting measures, but no one knows for sure the state of this
| pact, as the government is hiding the details. EFF is calling on the feds to
| change their minds, and will keep fighting this in court."
`----

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/06/eff-sues-obama-admin.html

Goodbye WIPO, Hello ACTA?

,----[ Quote ]
| What is really remarkable about this is that Greve can even be asking WIPO to
| consider free software and open standards: a few years ago, such a thing
| would have amounted to blasphemy.
|  Sadly, there is another sign that WIPO is becoming more accommodating to the
|  ideas behind free software: the fact that there seems to be a move to come
|  up with an alternative forum for promoting intellectual monopolies where it
|  will not be so easy to participate.
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2101...

New ACTA copyright treaty dodges the UN, poor countries and activists

,----[ Quote ]
| Michael Geist sez, "The World Intellectual Property Organization may be best
| known for the Internet treaties that led to the DMCA, but in recent years
| groups like EFF, KEI, and Public Knowledge has helped to open things up and
| move toward a Development Agenda that better balances international
| intellectual property policy. That progress may be threatened by the
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which officials now acknowledge is
| designed to exclude WIPO, developing countries, and NGOs."
`----

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/14/new-acta-copyright-t.html

Leaked ACTA Draft: More Power to the RIAA

,----[ Quote ]
| A recent draft of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
| (ACTA) surfaced on Wikileaks this weekend. Among other things, the draft aims
| to strengthen the power and rights of the entertainment industry and other
| copyright holders, by letting them choose how they want to be compensated for
| copyright infringements.
`----

http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-acta-draft-more-power-to-the-riaa-090414/

Classified US, Japan and EU ACTA trade agreement drafts, 2009

,----[ Quote ]
| The file presents US, Japan and EU drafts of the controversial international
| copyright and patent trade agreement, ACTA ("Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
| Agreement"). The documents were obtained by Wikileaks staff.
`----

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Classified_US%2C_Japan_and_EU_ACTA_trade_ag...

Call the Obama administration and ask for your copy of ACTA now!

,----[ Quote ]
| The Obama administration wants to be called about the status of negotiations
| of ACTA. Call the Obama administration and ask for your copy of ACTA now!
`----

http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-144960/call-the-obama-administ...
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